Its module rack system makes combat feel closer to building a machine than playing a normal card battler.
Just about three years ago, I did an interview with the solo developer over at Horizont Computergrafik who was working on a very unique genre-bending game. That game was Rogue Voltage.
A roguelike deckbuilder meets a modular synthesizer-type of genre-bending. It is labeled as a deckbuilder and card battler on Steam because there isn’t yet a category for something this unique. After 6 long years of development, with 2 of those in Early Access, the game is finally coming out for its official 1.0 release. Let’s jump in to see what this game is all about and if all that hard work paid off.
In the year 3000 or so, there was a catastrophic gravitational event that largely destroyed the world. The few survivors live in campsites scattered across the planet.
Your story starts with two brothers out looking for modules to bring back to camp. Along your journey you will find many unique characters, peculiar enemies, and maybe even save the world.
You start each run by selecting two characters. While you progress through the game, you will unlock additional characters that you can select from. As you take them on runs, characters will get experience and unlock new modules for you to come across in future playthroughs.
Each character does have a specific set of modules that they will start the adventure with, though. It’s a good idea to mix and match characters to find unique synergies for each run and find what best fits your playstyle.
Let’s talk a little bit more about modules and how they work in the game. Each character in Rogue Voltage has a 4×4 rack that they can hold modules on.
There is also a backpack that can hold unused modules or pass them back and forth between characters. Each module can have one or more inputs, one or more outputs, or a mixture of both.
These modules all run on energy. Some create it, some hold it, some amplify it, and some simply use it. There are over 150 unique modules in the game that you can use to create all sorts of crazy machines and game-breaking combinations.
In order to transfer power from one module to another, you will need to wire them all together. This is where things really get interesting.
You might have a generator that outputs 1 energy per turn. That isn’t very much on its own, but if you can combine it with the power from a storage cell you picked up at the end of the last battle, then maybe you can defeat the current enemy in just one shot.
So, you wire them both to a merger passthrough already on your rack and then wire that to your gatling gun. The combined power is now more than enough to take it out, so you flip the switch and watch the electrical current make its way through each of your modules to the Gatling gun, blowing away the enemy before it ever had a chance to strike at you.
That was just a very simple example of combining a couple of modules together. As you progress through the game, you will discover more modules that do all sorts of crazy things. Soon, you will have a full rack of different modules you are trying to connect together to take out the boss at the end of the run. Damage isn’t the only thing to keep track of in combat, though.
Another very important part of the combat system is the timeline. Both of your characters, all enemies, and even environmental events all show up on the timeline. Timeline manipulation is a very important part of Rogue Voltage.
There are many modules that you can use to move units forward and backward on the timeline. There are also a lot of enemy units that can move you forward and backward on the timeline. This means that the turn order is always changing.
Your turn order isn’t the most important part, though. Every time someone moves forward or backward on the timeline, they are affected by a positive or negative Grav Charge. This charge can be harnessed by modules to create even more energy.
,So, you might have one character that keeps applying a negative Grav Charge to an enemy, which pushes that unit further down the timeline. Then, your other character uses a module that takes all that built-up charge and turns it into energy. Sure, that might move the enemy back to the front of the turn order, but that won’t matter if you put all that newly harnessed energy into a weapon to finish them off in one hit.
At the end of each combat encounter, you will be rewarded with new modules to pick from. Depending on how quickly you get through the combat encounter, you can get some pretty rare equipment. This is something that you can also keep track of on the timeline during combat. There is a line across the top so you know how many turns you have for each reward tier.
Aside from combat nodes, there are also shops, events, healing nodes, and upgrade stations that you can come across during each adventure. Similar to other deckbuilders, you will work your way through branching nodes until you get to the end of the run.
There are multiple biomes per run, and each will end with its own boss. You will then be able to visit the camp before moving on to the next biome.
Camp is a place for you to heal up your team before continuing to the next biome. You can also spend plasma, the in-game currency, to upgrade different buildings in your camp.
Some of these buildings include a trading post, to buy additional modules, and a refinery, where you can upgrade your existing modules. Your camp upgrades are persistent and will remain upgraded for future runs. You can also upgrade your camp from the main menu with materials you were rewarded for a successful adventure.
At the end of each run, you will be given a score. You can see how you did compared to other players. You can also see how much experience your characters gained and if you gathered any materials based on the success of your adventure. Materials can be used to upgrade your camp outside of a run.
That might have seemed like a lot to keep track of, but Rogue Voltage has a very thought-out tutorial that helps you quickly go from connecting just a couple of modules to wiring up a full rack in no time. With the game’s progression system, you are also slowly unlocking modules as you play rather than having them all at once, so you don’t have to worry about falling victim to analysis paralysis.
I will say that the game can be a bit of a thinker as you get further into it. You might spend some time trying to find that perfect combination of modules to take an enemy out in one hit.
You might get stuck deciding between rewards at the end of a combat. It can be hard to figure out which is going to fit your build the best in the long run. On the other hand, Rogue Voltage is a perfect “just one more run” game. Just one more to max out this character’s experience. Just one more to see how this newly unlocked character works. There is always something new to try with every run.
With all that being said, is the game worth checking out? Honestly, I think it is a must-play and should be on everyone’s list.
The game isn’t expensive, and it’s just too unique not to give it a try. Sure, it can be a thinker, and not everyone is into that, but it is also not like anything else I have played. All of the modules and enemies are so interesting. As you discover more modules, you will just be lost, wondering how the developer even came up with it. Then, you will instantly start thinking about how you are going to use it in your next run.
The game is so well-made and addictive. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something new and interesting to play. If you are interested in checking the game out for yourself, head on over to their Steam page.
A copy of the game was provided by the developer at Horizont Computergrafik for review.
